[ale] thinking about switching away from ubuntu

Marc Ferguson marcferguson at gmail.com
Wed Apr 14 09:24:29 EDT 2010


On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 8:42 AM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:

> Welcome to world of distro switching!
>
> Of all of the distro's I've used over the past 15 years, at some point they
> _ALL_ get crunchy, un-smooth. It's a by-product of the bazaar development
> process. Another way to describe it is "too many cooks spoil the soup".
>
> What to do:
>
> 1. Nothing! Sit tight, tweak your system ('cause you can!)  and send in the
> bug notices and let the distro devels do their job. This is probably your
> best choice as your main environment will stay in place and your
> understanding of it will deepen.
>
> 2. Experiment with other distros. Other than the time and bandwidth to
> download, this is a no-cost-to-you approach. You might find another one you
> really like. Start with the major players latest and greatest releases and
> work your way through the chain through some of the smaller ones. You'll
> likely find that a major format change from Debian apt-get and config file
> structure to something else like RedHat/CentOS/Fedora yum/rpm and
> /etc/sysconfig to be a challenge. This process will be a challenge but very
> rewarding as well. You'll get the chance to see different ways to do
> installations (anaconda and kickstart are nice ways to fully automate things
> in the RedHat world when you have a zillion boxes to run) but you'll fight
> the new systems due to nonfamiliarity of their locations and procedures. The
> current distro world is a lot like the old *NIX land of 15 years ago -
> everyone has their own "flavor" and that mkes for their own idiosyncrasies.
>
> 3. Pick a new distro from the major players, install it and refuse to go
> back. This isn't as bad as it sounds. By committing to learning the new
> system, you will become a very capable systeadmin for that system. Granted
> _most_ people don't want to be a sysadmin. (Apple as an app for that - plop
> down your wallet and soul and they will take care of you) If you go this
> route, really plan on sticking with the major players for this.
>
> I use Fedora for desktops and CEntOS for servers. Is it perfect? Nope.
> Fedora experiments with some cool tech that causes problems sometimes. So I
> find those and remove them when I can. I'm pretty comfy with the yum process
> and know the tricks to multi-media happiness in a patent-crippled world. But
> I've also learned to give a new Fedora release about 2 weeks before I get it
> and to do a full update before I even try and use the sytem. For the most
> part, Fedora's updates have not broken my desktop(s) since about Fedora 9 or
> so. Even then, the breakage lasted about a day and a fix was out (except for
> the bone-headed break that putzed the yum tool! That took about 3 days
> before it was fixed and it required a commandline download of the new
> yum.rpm and a manual install - not hard at all but for a newbie fedora user
> it would be intimidating).
>
> To quote the SuSE distro, "Have a lot of fun!".
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 10:58 PM, adam <prozaconstilts at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi-o,
>>
>> Over the past year or so, I have started to notice that I'm having to
>> tweak, fix, or otherwise finnagle my ubuntu desktop more and more into
>> working properly every time a new release comes out.
>>
>> For 9.04, pulse audio drove me nuts. For 9.10 usplash was a disaster.
>> I've had recurring samba problems via gnome's vfs and nautilus systems.
>> X with multiple monitors is nerve-wracking (damn mouse pointer bug).
>> It's never been a problem I couldn't tackle, it's always just been a
>> minor annoyance...but the annoyances are starting to stack up.
>>
>> I've read a blog post here and there calling for uber bug fix
>> releases[1], and I tend to agree. "Linux for humans" has gotten tougher
>> and tougher for me to believe in regards to ubuntu.
>>
>> I feel like giving 10.04 a shot (LTS is supposed to mean a more stable
>> release), and if it fails for me, I think I might try to look for
>> greener pastures.
>>
>> Has anyone else felt the same at some time or another, and have you
>> looked for a similar solution? Any luck? Also, I've only ever used
>> ubuntu, but none of the other variants produced by canonical. I'm open
>> to try another 'buntu if it's worth it.
>>
>> Adam
>>
>>
>>
>> [1] http://www.tannerhelland.com/commentary/ubuntu-linux/ubuntu-1004/
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>
>
>
> --
> --
> James P. Kinney III
> Actively in pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness
>
>
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>
Hey Adam,

I'm in the exact same boat, but my main distro is Fedora. I've been running
it since 8 and have been pretty happy, even with a couple of annoyances.
Though - since Fedora 11, I haven't been able to get my nVidia GeForce card
working properly. It's been racking my brain and NO ONE can seem to figure
out why my monitor is losing its signal when I use the kmod-nvidia drivers.
It works on my Windows partition (did I say that out loud!?).

So; I finally threw my hands up and when the stable version of the next
Ubuntu release is available.. I'm making the switch. The general quote that
I hear about Ubuntu is, "it just works." We'll see. :)

-- 
Marc Ferguson

Registered Linux User #410978
www.fergytech.com | www.digitalalias.net

"When life gives me lemons... I make Linuxaide, hmm good stuff!"
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